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Heathrow braces for second day of disruption after cyber-attack
Air travellers are facing another day of disruption at several European airports including Heathrow, after a cyber-attack knocked out a check-in and baggage system.
There were hundreds of delays on Saturday after the software used by several airlines failed, with affected airports boarding passengers using pen and paper.
Brussels Airport said it had “no indication yet” when the system would be functional again and had asked airlines to cancel half their departing flights.
RTX, which owns software provider Collins Aerospace, said it was “aware of a cyber-related disruption” to its system in “select airports” and that it hoped to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.
It identified its Muse software – which allows different airlines to use the same check-in desks and boarding gates at an airport, rather than requiring their own – as the system that had been affected.
The company has yet to disclose what went wrong or how long it expects the outage to last.
Heathrow said on Sunday that efforts to resolve the issue were ongoing.
It apologised to those who had faced delays but stressed that “the vast majority of flights have continued to operate”, urging passengers to check their flight status before travelling to the airport and arrive in good time.
The BBC understands that British Airways has continued to operate as normal at the airport using a back-up system, but that most other airlines that service it had been affected by the outage.
There were hours-long queues on Saturday and some 47% of Heathrow’s departing flights were delayed, according to flight tracker FlightAware. Additional staff were at hand in check-in areas to help minimise disruption.

Naomi Rowan, from Sudbury in Suffolk, was supposed to be moving to Costa Rica with her dog Dusty, but both are now in a hotel after their Air France flight from Heathrow on Saturday was affected by the cyber attack.
She said staff were boarding passengers with pen and paper due to the outage but told her they were unable to board Dusty without the electronic system.
“I had a cry, booked a hotel and managed to get through to Air France on WhatsApp, who say the next available flight for me is Monday,” she said.
Lucy Spencer told the BBC that she had queued to check in for a Malaysia Airlines flight for more than two hours, and that staff had been checking passengers in over the phone.
Another passenger, Monazza Aslam, said she had to wait since the early hours of the morning with her elderly parents, and that the delays meant they had missed their connecting flight.
Brussels Airport said manual check-in would continue on Sunday and that extra staff had been drafted in to help minimise disruption.
It said 44 departing flights had been cancelled so far on Sunday, and that it anticipated long queues at check-in and further delays.
Europe’s combined aviation safety organisation, Eurocontrol, said airline operators had been asked to cancel half their flight schedules to and from the airport until 02:00 on Monday due to the disruption.
Meanwhile, Dublin Airport said that while the technical issues persisted and some airlines were continuing to check in manually, it was expecting to operate a full schedule on Sunday.
A spokesperson told the BBC: “Passengers are advised to contact their airline directly for updates on their flight.”
Dublin Airport previously said that Cork Airport, which is owned by the same parent company, had experienced a “minor impact” from the cyber-attack – but Cork Airport has since said it has faced no disruption with all services operating as normal.
Berlin Brandenburg Airport is asking travellers to use online or self-service check-in instead of the desks while the outage is ongoing.
It said there had been 12 cancellations in and out of the airport on Saturday, but that delays were generally less than 45 minutes.
EasyJet and Ryanair, which do not operate out of Heathrow but are among Europe’s biggest airlines, said on Saturday that they were operating as normal.

A National Cyber Security Centre spokesperson said on Saturday that it was working with Collins Aerospace, affected UK airports, the Department for Transport and law enforcement to fully understand the impact of the incident.
The European Commission, which plays a role in managing airspace across Europe, said it was “closely monitoring the cyber-attack”, but that there was no indication it had been “widespread or severe”.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander also said she was aware of the incident and was “getting regular updates and monitoring the situation”.
It was only last July that a global IT crash due to a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike caused disruption to aviation, grounding flights across the US.
Analysts said at the time that the incident highlighted how the industry could be vulnerable to issues with digital systems.
[BBC]
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Advisory for Severe Lightning issued to the Western and Sabaragamuwa provinces and Galle and Matara districts
Advisory for Severe Lightning Issued by the Natural Hazards Early Warning Centre at 12.30 noon 12 March 2026 valid for the period until 11.00 p.m. 12 March 2026
Thundershowers accompanied with severe lightning are likely to occur at some places in the Western and Sabaragamuwa provinces and in Galle and Matara districts after 2.00 p.m.
There may be temporary localized strong winds during thundershowers. General public is kindly requested to take adequate precautions to minimize damages caused by lightning activity.
ACTION REQUIRED:
The Department of Meteorology advises that people should:
Seek shelter, preferably indoors and never under trees.
Avoid open areas such as paddy fields, tea plantations and open water bodies during thunderstorms.
Avoid using wired telephones and connected electric appliances during thunderstorms.
Avoid using open vehicles, such as bicycles, tractors and boats etc.
Beware of fallen trees and power lines.
For emergency assistance contact the local disaster management authorities.
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Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur, Mitchell Starc and Kuldeep Yadav among ESPNcricinfo award winners for 2025
India’s players swept all the women’s categories in ESPNcricinfo’s annual awards for individual performances in 2025, reflecting a year in which the team won their first World Cup title.
While Jemimah Rodrigues won the women’s ODI batting honours for her awe-inspiring, cramp-battling century that knocked Australia out of the World Cup. Deepti Sharma grabbed the ODI bowling award for her match turning five for in the final against South Africa. And Harmanpreet Kaur took the captain’s award for winning the world title and for sealing white-ball series (ODIs and T20Is) in England and winning her second WPL title with Mumbai Indians. Her title clinching 66in the WPL final against Delhi Capitals took the women’s T20 leagues batting award.
South Africa Women had to deal with the bitter heartbreak of losing yet another World Cup final, but the men, who for long fell agonizingly short of the big prizes, took home the World Test Championship, eating Australia by five wickets in the final at Lord’s. They were rewarded by our jurors too:Aiden Markram won the Test batting award for his epic fourth-innings hundred in that final, while Temba Bavuma, who made a vital 66 while nursing a hamstring injury during that chase, was picked as the men’s captain of the year for leading his side to the WTC mace, to a sweep of India in Tests in India, and for ODI series wins in Australia and England.
Fast bowler Marco Jansen, one of the bowling architects of South Africa’s 2-0 win in India, narrowly lost the Test bowling award to the incandescent Mitchell Starc, who decimated England with 7 for 58 in Perth on the opening day of the Ashes.
Another seven-for took the men’s T20 leagues bowling award: Taskin Ahmed’s 7 for 19 fro Durbar Rajshahi against Dhakar Capital in the BPL. The batting prize in that category went to Hobart Hurricanes opener Mitchell Owen, whose 39 ball century against Sydney Thunder – which equalled the tournament record for the fastest hundred – took his side to their maiden BBL title.
The women’s T20 leagues bowling award, like the one for batting, also came against Delhi Capitals in the WPL: 21-year-old UP Warriorz fast bowler Kranti Gaud, in her first season, took 4 for 25, including the wickets of Rodrigues, Meg Lanning and Shafali Verma.
The Champions Trophy was the headline event in men’s cricket in 2025 and the winning ODI performances came from that tournament: in Lahore, Ibrahim Zadran broke records for the highest individual score for Afghanistan in ODIs and for the highest score in the Champions Trophy overall with his majestic 177, which knocked England out of the tournament. The ODI bowling award was picked up by India legspinner Varun Chakravarthy who took 5 for 42 against New Zealand in Dubai, where a week later India won the Champions Trophy.
Six months later, at the same ground, India also won the T20 Asia Cup. In the final against Pakistan, the dismantler-in-chief was our men’s T20I bowling award winner, another legspinner, Kuldeep Yadav, who took 4 for 30, including three wickets in his final over.
The men’s T20I batting award went to England’s Phil Salt, whose 141 not out off 60 balls against South Africa at Old Trafford was not only England’s fastest T20I hundred, but also their highest individual score in the format; and it took them to their highest team total – 304.
Australian allrounder Beau Webster, who scored four half-centuries, including a series-sealing one in his first Test, in Sydney against India, and took eight wickets in seven Tests, was named the men’s debutant of the year. The women’s debutant award went to India fast bowler N Shree Charani who showed remarkable temperament at the age of 20 to pick up a four for on T20I debut in England. She went on to take 14 wickets in the ODI World Cup, second highest for India after Deepti.
Charani, like Harmanpreet, won two awards. Her other one, for women’s T20I bowling, came for her four wickets against England at Trent Bridge, in a match where opener Smriti Mandhana’s maiden T20I hundred played a vital role in setting up India’s win. Mandhana won the women’s T20I batting award for that performance.
The men’s Associate batting award went to Max O’Dowd for masterminding Netherlands’ 370-run chase – the third-highest successful one in all ODIs -against Scotland in Dundee. His 158 not out came off only 130 balls and trumped George Munsey’s 191 in the same match. The men’s Associate bowling award was picked up by seamer Harry Manenti, whose 5 for 31 against Scotland in the qualifier in The Hague, played a big role in Italy qualifying for the 2026 T20 World Cup.
THE JURY : Ian Bishop, Sambit Bal, Shane Bond, Aakash Chopra, Andrew Fernando, Andy Flower, Nagraj Gollapudi, Mohammad Isam, Isobel Joyce, Raunak Kapoor, Nick Knight, Farveez Maharoof, Andrew McGlashan, Andrew Miller, Sidharth Monga, Tom Moody, Firdose Moonda, Urooj Mumtaz, Vernon Philander, Matt Roller, Osman Samiuddin, Dale Steyn
[Cricinfo]
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Nasa spacecraft weighing 1,300lb due to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere
A Van Allen Probe spacecraft weighing more than 1,300lb (600kg) is expected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere almost 14 years after its launch, Nasa says.
The spacecraft is projected to re-enter around 19:45 EDT (23:45 GMT) on Tuesday the US Space Force predicted, according to Nasa, though there is a 24-hour margin of “uncertainty” in the timing.
The Van Allen Probe A, which launched in 2012, is expected mostly to burn up as it travels through the atmosphere, though some components may survive.
The space agency said there is a one in 4,200 chance of being harmed by a piece of the probe, which it characterised as “low” risk.
The spacecraft and its twin, Van Allen Probe B, were on a mission to gather unprecedented data on Earth’s two permanent radiation belts.
It was not immediately clear where in Earth’s atmosphere the satellite is projected to re-enter. The BBC has contacted Nasa for further detail.
Nasa and the US Space Force have said they will monitor the re-entry and update any predictions.
The mission, which was originally designed to last two years, went on for almost seven. It ended after the spacecrafts ran out of fuel and were no longer able to orient themselves toward the Sun.
The probes flew through rings of charged particles trapped by Earth’s magnetic field from 2012 to 2019, in order to study how particles were gained and lost, per Nasa.
Those rings, called the Van Allen belts, shield Earth from cosmic radiation, solar storms and streaming solar wind, which are harmful to humans and can damage technology.
The mission made significant discoveries, including the first data that show the existence of a transient third radiation belt, which can form during times of intense solar activity, Nasa said.
Van Allen Probe B is not expected to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere before 2030.
[BBC]
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